Sonnet CXLVI: Poor Soul, the Centre of my Sinful Earth

Shakespeare, William (1564 - 1616)

Original Text

William Shakespeare, Shake-speares sonnets (London: G. Eld for T. T., 1609). STC 22353. Facs. edn.: London: J. Cape, 1925. PR 2750 B48 1609b ROBA.

1Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth,

2[......] these rebel powers that thee array,

3Why dost thou pine within and suffer dearth,

4Painting thy outward walls so costly gay?

5Why so large cost, having so short a lease,

6Dost thou upon thy fading mansion spend?

7Shall worms, inheritors of this excess,

8Eat up thy charge? Is this thy body's end?

9Then soul, live thou upon thy servant's loss

10And let that pine to aggravate thy store;

11Buy terms divine in selling hours of dross;

12Within be fed, without be rich no more.

13So shalt thou feed on Death, that feeds on men,

14And, Death once dead, there's no more dying then.

Notes

1] sinful earth: i.e., body. Back to Line

2] The Quarto reading of this line, "My sinfull earth these rebell powres that thee array," is evidently corrupt, the compositor probably being responsible for the repetition of "My sinfull earth." The original is irrecoverable. Conjectural readings include "Thrall to" (by analogy with Lucrece, 722-28), "Fool'd by," "Lord of," "Press'd by," "Why feed'st." The meaning of the phrase is: the rebellious bodily passions that are the garment of the soul. Back to Line

8] thy charge: i.e., the body. Back to Line

9] loss: i.e., privation. Back to Line

10] aggravate: increase. Back to Line

11] terms divine: long periods of divine salvation. Back to Line

Publication Start Year

1609

RPO poem Editors

F. D. Hoeniger

RPO Edition

3RP 1.144.

Rhyme

ababcdcdefefgg

Form

sonnet